


A Loud, Quiet Night

by AD_Sunshine16



Category: N/A - Fandom
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-24
Updated: 2020-06-24
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:40:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24889276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AD_Sunshine16/pseuds/AD_Sunshine16
Summary: I just have a lot of feelings about the characters in the summer dnd session I'm playing.This is a small snippet of my character (13 year old half elf barbarian) dealing with, or kinda dealing with, her own anxiety and trauma by finding comfort in her friend (14 year old human druid) in order to go to sleep.They are just very soft and are good kids.





	A Loud, Quiet Night

It wasn’t for a lack of trying. Most nights Annie could get to sleep with little to no effort, perhaps due to exerting mass amounts of energy during the day, but tonight was one of those in which her mind would not allow her to rest. The meeting had gone alright with the heads of all the families in Gotshem. Somehow, she and the others had convinced them into lending aid in setting things back to the way they were in Kerci. Yet, something still caused her to toss and turn and jolt awake in bed.  
A couple of times she had caught Wes still awake, having been allowed to share the room with him tonight instead of Nyloth as the night before. It helped calm her nerves to have someone to share the room with, especially someone who at least attempted to look out for her. When she was alone or the last to fall asleep it was just too...loud. Were they going in the right direction? Was she being taken seriously? Is she coming off too strong? Do they think she’s stupid? Is she really as annoying as Nyloth says she is? Did she really embarrass them like Wes had mentioned? And when it wasn’t a question pointed at her every move and breath it was the faces.  
Annie groaned in a tired frustration and lifted the pillow from her face where she had just been trying to smother herself into an unconscious state. The room had grown dark after a while, Wes having finally decided to go to sleep, having lifted himself up into his bed and promptly passed out face up as usual. How he didn’t always have a sore throat or didn’t move in his sleep, Annie wasn’t sure. But she was sure that he seemed a lot comfier and calmer than her right about now. She turned on her right side to face the wall beside her, putting the pillow back under her head. It didn’t take long after she closed her eyes for her head to get loud again.  
It always started out the same, lots of questions in her own voice then slowly shifting to things people have said, then faces, loud bangs. Screaming, every now and again, and that was usually when she would roll over and try again. She turned to her right, facing Wes’ side of the room and blew air to move her bangs from her face. She had taken down her braids in an attempt to get more comfortable but now she was starting to regret it. The deep breaths she took at the start did little to help this time, the image of her mentor injured and yelling at her to run before pushing Annie away ran at her faster than she could sit up.  
She sat there in the dark of the room for a moment trying to catch her breath,running a calloused hand over her mouth, rubbing her eyes, before looking up to her companion in the other bed. He hardly ever slept, and when he did he didn’t sleep well. If she woke him she would feel guilty, but she couldn’t take this silence much longer.  
“Wes?” She stage whispered into the dark in his direction. Annie paused, waiting for a response that was only given in the same steady breathing from before. “Wes? You up?”  
Carefully, her bare feet hit the ground. She gathered her pillow and the dagger she kept beneath it and slowly shuffled towards the brown haired boy. Carefully, she slid the dagger into the waistband of her sleeping trousers and stood on the opposite side of where Wes lay. He looked...soft. Sure, they had shared rooms a couple of times at smaller, not as nice places, and they were almost always side by side but she wasn’t sure she had ever stopped to really, truly look at him.  
“Is it okay if I sleep next to you?” At this point she knew he couldn’t hear her, but she would feel bad if she didn’t ask anyways. As careful as she could, she put her pillow down first, testing the change in weight to see if he would react, then slowly laid herself on top of the covers next to him. He looked almost swaddled in the way he had the blanket that came with the room and his own furs pulled over himself.  
Annie laid there in the dark next to him, taking in what she could see of him in her limited vision. Her hand rested beneath her head as she laid on her side facing him, her other hand tucked close to her chest as if she was afraid of getting too close and ruining it all. In a way he almost looked peaceful, as if this was the only time he could truly rest. For the first time, she noticed how long and almost delicate his eyelashes looked with his eyes closed, resting. Since he was almost always squinting or giving dead-eyed glares it was hard to catch that detail. There was an almost fragile aspect to him like this, the steady rise and fall of his chest with each deep and even breath, the way his hair splayed out across his forehead just so. Annie had the sneaking suspicion that if she were to reach out and stroke the side of his face he would feel exactly as soft as the skin of a peach. And it was in the study of his details that she began to feel a weight on her eyelids.  
The young teenager yawned, covering her mouth a bit, and settled further into her spot beside her friend. She wondered if that was the same fur he had used to try and wipe some of the blood off her face a few days prior. Despite it having been shoved in her face, it was rather comfortable and she could fully understand why he was often placing it over his legs. Without really thinking, Annie reached out to pet the top of the fur blanket as it laid out across his chest, and it wasn’t until she had already made contact with the fluffy fabric that she realized what she was doing. She stopped stock still and waited.  
A moment passed, and seemingly free, she removed her hand and sunk a bit closer to his side. She wasn’t about to steal his blankets and bed, but he was rather warm in the cold of the room so Wes could spare some body heat while he slept, right? As soon as she settled, he moved. Just a small inch, but enough to scare Annie into thinking she woke him. Instead of turning his head, eyes open and accusing, his head shifted in his sleep towards her, eyes still firmly shut. The way that he moved seemed to almost indicate that he knew she was there, his head stopping to rest just above her own as she laid facing his side. He had moved closer to her.  
Hesitantly, Annie reached her hand back out and placed it on his chest where she had just been petting the fur blanket. She laid like that, patterning out his breath, counting the moments in between each rise and fall until her eyelids closed like curtains to a play. The quiet was no longer unbearable, the soft sound of Wes’ inhales and half dreamed mumbles helping her drift off for the night, and hopefully a good enough excuse for the morning when they woke.


End file.
